Keystone-SDA
Rescue teams intensified their research on Friday to find five minors. The latter are trapped after a collapse that made a dead in the largest underground mine in the world, in Chile.
(Keystone-ATS) The accident occurred Thursday afternoon in the copper mine of El Teniente following a “seismic event” whose origin-natural or caused by boreholes-is still being studied.
Mine activities have been suspended.
The mine produces 356,000 tonnes per year, or 6.7% of the total copper production of Chile, the world’s leading supplier of this metal. “We are going to take a temporary measure to suspend the exploitation (…) of El Teniente,” said the Minister of Mines, Aurora Williams, to journalists.
“We will do everything that is humanly possible to save the five workers trapped. All our experience, all our knowledge, all our energy, our entire strength are put at the service of this cause and this objective, “said Maximo Pachecho, President of Codelco, during a press conference on Friday afternoon.
The blocked minors worked on the extension of this mine some 1200 meters deep. The operation has 4,500 kilometers of galleries.
More than a hundred rescuers participate in the operation, said the Director General of the Andres Music mine. They know the exact place in which workers trapped in El Teniente are, because they have location devices, but have not yet managed to establish contact, he said.
“The galleries are closed, they are collapsed,” he said at a press conference.
Michael Miranda, a brother of one of the minors, told AFP that families had not been informed of how the accident had occurred.
“They didn’t explain anything to us. No one has approached to talk about it, to tell us if my brother is well or not, whether or not whether or not, “he deplored in front of the Codelco offices in the city of Rancagua, 100 km south of Santiago.
The wife of this minor is pregnant “and no one in the company has contacted her.” No psychological support, nothing, ”he added.
Very delicate work
The next 48 hours are crucial for research operations, in which certain rescuers participated who had managed to save 33 minors blocked for 69 days at more than 600 mothers in depth in a mine of the Atacama desert in 2010.
According to Mr. Pachecho, the rescue work consists in removing the equipment accumulated in the gallery where workers are trapped. They were located thanks to the electronic devices they carried on them.
“We are doing this work with independent and intelligent, remote-controlled equipment, and a very specialized rescue team, because it is an extraordinarily delicate work,” he explained.
The shock, with a magnitude of 4.2 according to the statements, caused the death of a worker and injured nine others.
“This is one of the most serious events, if not the most serious, that the El Teniente site has known for decades,” said the director.
“What we want here is that they conduct an in -depth investigation. (…) We have pointed out many irregularities, ”assured AFP José Maldonado, union leader of El Teniente.
“The mountain is already saturated and begins to collapse”, which would have caused a subsidence and not an earthquake, he accused.
Chile is the world’s largest producer of copper, with 5.3 million tonnes in 2024. Its mining industry is one of the safest in the world. Last year, the mortality rate was 0.02%, according to the national geology and mines department.
